North West: Unorthodox Marijuana Transit Methods

PolitiqueLIENGU Etaka Esong | 26-01-2018 10:27

The region is not free from the evil that goes with the production and circulation of marijuana.

From the look of things, the North West region features prominently among regions that cultivate , consume and export marijuana, the herb that threatens health care and inspires evil. Services working against the promotion of the herb reveal that virtually all the seven Divisions of the North West cultivate marijuana with some neighbourhoods of Bui and Mezam Divisions leading cultivation as a way of life.

Consumption is more in the towns of the region and beyond like Kumbo, Bamenda, Douala, Kumba and beyond the nation’s frontiers.

In effect, hectares of marijuana farms allegedly feature in some neighbourhoods of Oku, Wainama, Kifem, Noni, Bafut, etc. It is common knowledge that the forces of Law and Order are regularly involved in running battles with promoters of the herb. Away from direct intervention on the farms which often leaves farmers escaping, very unorthodox methods are used to move the drug from the farms through transit points in the cities.

Quite often, dealers in the sector use clandestine vehicles to transport the herb through Kumbo, Bamenda and beyond. They travel during odd hours. Late night travel is common when they suspect that there are fewer or no more Forces of Law and Order on the highway. Often, accomplice transporters mix or hide the bags of the herb within bags of huckleberry fondly called “njama-njama". Others load them in trucks transporting plank or wood because it is difficult for Security forces to track.

From the farms, they use foot paths, farm to market roads and stretches uncommon to intervention forces. Traffickers sometimes hire people to transit with the herb as head load from some very exposed highways where they cannot escape the vigilance of Security forces. Commercial motorcycles also feature in the business of ferrying marijuana from farms to neighbourhoods of demand because they can make it through some difficult or inaccessible routes.

Dependable sources also have it that some high profile people in society are accomplices and use their personal cars to transit marijuana from town to town and region to region.
In the short and long of it, Security sources indicate that the cultivation, consumption and circulation of the herb also known as "Banga" is on a steady increase in the region.

It is against this backdrop that the forces of Law and Order have embarked on a sensitization campaign to educate the population on the illegality of the activity. They have often been spotted in action on the field where they file out destroying marijuana farms and encouraging the population to engage in the productive farming of conventional crops than activities that spell doom.